That’s what happened to LeBron James when he left Cleveland for Miami in 2010 and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert responded by publishing such a letter to the team website. Upon his return, James simply told SI.com that he and Gilbert “talked it out.”

In the ESPN’s debut episode of “The Shop,” LeBron went into more depth on how deeply Gilbert’s letter hurt him and how torn his family was about coming back to Cleveland in 2014.

Interesting to hear LeBron James talk about how upset he was over Cavs owner Dan Gilbert writing that comic sans letter. pic.twitter.com/zVa6O74Ew1

“He completely bashed me and disrespected not only me as an individual, but he disrespected my name. And my name is not just myself. It’s my wife, my kids, my grandfather. You know what I’m saying? My mother, so many more people.”

James then spoke about why he was able to put the letter in the past when he returned to the Cavs four years later:

“It’s more of a bigger picture of all these kids, all these people that need inspiration, need a way to get out. And I believe I’m that way out. And so I had to be like, as much as my mom means everything and my wife mean everything and my kids … I had to be like, let’s not worry about the small [expletive], let’s worry about us trying to build something that’s bigger.”

About Jesse Kramer

Jesse is a writer and editor for The Comeback. He has also worked for SI.com and runs The Catch and Shoot, a college basketball website based in Chicago. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow Jesse on Twitter @Jesse_Kramer.